Conversation in Colorado

Two leaders share how Denver’s long-time investment in early childhood education helped catalyze a statewide transformation
Blog Post
Dr. Lisa Roy, Executive Director, Colorado Department of Early Childhood and Elsa I. Holguín, President and CEO, Denver Preschool Program
Dr. Lisa Roy, Executive Director, Colorado Department of Early Childhood and Elsa I. Holguín, President and CEO, Denver Preschool Program. Source: New America Graphics/Alex Briñas.
Jan. 24, 2025

This is the eighth blog in our series on the Early Care and Education (ECE) Implementation Working Group. For more information on the group’s origin and activities, please see our first blog Implementation is Everything, and Early Care and Education is No Exception and a recently updated Meet the Early Care and Education Implementation Working Group. For a deep dive into some of the findings from the initial working group cohort, see our briefs on Family Outreach, Centralized Enrollment, and Participatory Planning.

From a Local Initiative to Statewide Scale

In 2006, the Denver Preschool Program became one of the country’s first locally-funded early childhood initiatives. For nearly 20 years, the program has grown to serve most four-year-olds in the city and has expanded to serve targeted populations of two- and three-year-olds. Denver’s program is a tuition-credit model, with families receiving a sliding-scale reimbursement depending on their income and the quality of the provider they choose. The cost of care is fully covered for the lowest-income families. The program’s funding is now permanently enshrined in local law.

Much more recently, the state of Colorado launched its universal prekindergarten program. All four-year olds in Colorado are eligible for 15 hours a week of state-funded early education. The program is currently in its second year of serving students and has dramatically expanded access to early care and education in the state, while also navigating the rocky challenges of implementation. In tandem with launching universal prekindergarten, the state created a new Department of Early Childhood to oversee all services for children from birth to eight, including the new preschool initiative.

Early childhood policy in the city of Denver and the state of Colorado are deeply intertwined. Denver is the state capital and there are strong personal ties running through the local and state programs. Leaders in Denver took an active role in advocating for the current state funding and policy framework. Denver’s early childhood leaders also have a formal role in implementing state universal prekindergarten, as the Denver Preschool Program serves as one of 32 regional partners charged with coordinating the implementation of the state initiative.

The leaders of the Denver Preschool Program and the Colorado Department of Early Childhood – Elsa Holguín and Dr. Lisa Roy – are longtime friends and colleagues, each with decades of early childhood experience in Colorado. As part of a broader discussion with the ECE Implementation Working Group about how localities can impact state early childhood policy, these two women had a candid conversation about how local work helped inspire statewide investment, and how the two organizations work together and navigate policy conflict. We are providing excerpts from their conversation to help shape and encourage constructive, productive collaborations for similarly positioned state and local leaders in the early childhood space.

This conversation has been edited for clarity and condensed for length.

In Conversation with Elsa Holguín and Dr. Lisa Roy

Learning how a successful local initiative was scaled to a state-wide program

Emmy Liss, moderator: Elsa, can you remind the group about the Denver Preschool Progam’s history and approach?

Elsa Holguín, Executive Director, Denver Preschool Program: Denver Preschool Program is almost 20 years old. We were created from a sales tax – 15 cents on every $100 of sales.

Denver is a city and county and we work primarily in the Denver area with one public school system, Denver Public Schools. Since the beginning, one of our principles has been family choice – the school system is about 60 percent of our providers, and we also work with community providers, including non-profit, for-profit, religiously affiliated, and home-based. We serve 60 percent of all the four-year-olds in Denver – about 5,000 children – and we have 270 providers.

We create a lot of incentives to ensure that they [the programs] are high quality. Our average tuition support last year was $850 per month, year-round. The majority of our children need full or extended day. For our level one kids, which is the highest level of poverty, our tuition support last year was up to $1,300 per month. We set our reimbursement rates based on what we believe is the cost of care, not based on what the providers are charging.

We have learned a ton over the years about how to implement the program. We have the second-largest early childhood data system in the country, only behind Head Start. We have a lot of data, which is the reason we can go back to the voters. We [the Denver Preschool Program] barely passed at the beginning, but then we were re-approved in 2014. We went to the ballot last year and we were re-approved with 78 percent approval to be a permanent fund.

[Denver Preschool Program provides full-time preschool to 5,000 children in Denver. For more information about the program and its impact, click here.]

We know that the work that is happening in Denver with early childhood is highly dependent on having an effective early childhood ecosystem, so we work really hard to ensure that we have the right ecosystem. I do a lot of policy and advocacy, and it is the reason why we also agreed to be a local intermediary for the state UPK program. Now in addition to money from the city, we work with the state. We make sure that we are helping the state – sometimes pushing them along; sometimes helping them along. It helps us tremendously that Dr. Lisa Roy and I have been friends for probably 30 years, so we have very, very honest conversations. This is not unusual because this world of early childhood is not that big – but we are able to move the system along because we are both committed to making the best possible system in Colorado.


"We know that the work that is happening in Denver with early childhood is highly dependent on having an effective early childhood ecosystem, so we work really hard to ensure that we have the right ecosystem… It helps us tremendously that Dr. Lisa Roy and I have been friends for probably 30 years, so we have very, very honest conversations. This is not unusual because this world of early childhood is not that big – but we are able to move the system along because we are both committed to making the best possible system in Colorado." —Elsa
Holguín

Emmy: Dr. Roy, as the first ever-leader of the state Department of Early Childhood, can you provide a brief overview of your department and how it came to be?

Dr. Lisa Roy, Executive Director, Colorado Department of Early Childhood: It’s always wonderful to hear Elsa talk about the Denver Preschool Program. We both worked on the creation of the Denver Preschool Program. Elsa ran the first two ballot initiatives. I ran the third. And we waited with bated breath as they were counting votes for several weeks until we found out that we won – barely. But the time and attention that went into planning the Denver Preschool Program really did help with increasing that support over time.

Fast forward to 2019. Elsa was probably working on this the minute that early childhood was a named priority. Our governor started with promising full day kindergarten, which was foundational. Then, there was the tobacco tax to support a universal preschool program. And then Elsa and others worked and advocated for a department to administer not only universal preschool, but also all of the early childhood programs that serve children from birth to age eight and their families. We have home visitation, family resource centers, early childhood councils, early intervention, early childhood, mental health licensing. We do the quality standards for licensed programs and workforce work, and now universal preschool.

Colorado wanted to break down silos. We want every early childhood provider in a mixed delivery system to have a one-stop shop. We want families to have a one-stop shop. We're working on a unified application to have all our data in one place, and so we're working on an early childhood integrated data system. Our goal is to be change makers and to really support our children, families, and early childhood professionals to be healthy, valued, and thriving.

Leveraging Local Experience in Denver to Inform State Level Early Childhood Policy

Emmy: Elsa, can you talk about just how tactically you and other local leaders have worked over the past two decades to try and impact state policy early childhood?

Elsa: We were very lucky to have a meeting with Governor Polis on one of his first days on the job. There were five of us that were able to meet with him around early childhood. He had been a big champion for education, particularly K-12 education; he had served on the board of the Colorado Department of Education. Early childhood was still relatively new for him, but he did understand that full-day kindergarten was going to be very important and he understood that it was part of the K-12 continuum.

The early childhood community had been working for 30 years to consolidate some of the services around early childhood. We need to bring more resources. We had created an Office of Early Childhood, which was housed at the Department of Human Services for several years, but the dream was a Department of Early Childhood.

I remember at that meeting, telling the governor that we needed a Department of Early Childhood. And he said, yes, wait in line. We can only create 20 departments in Colorado. We only have one spot left and there are several people waiting for that spot. Everybody wants that spot. And I said, I think it should be a department of early childhood.

Governor Polis, seated, reads to a classroom of Colorado preschool students while other adults observe.
Governor Polis reads to a classroom of Colorado preschool students.
Source: Colorado Department of Early Childhood

After full-day kindergarten, he started to understand we needed to have a preschool in order for full-day kindergarten and K-12 to work. Then came the opportunity to go after a nicotine and cigarette tax. We spent a lot of time helping with that campaign, helping to pass it.

We use whatever opportunity we have to be the catalyst for the next step, so as we started doing the implementation of UPK, we thought, hey, why not create an UPK implementation plan and a plan for a new department? And at this point we were working with the legislature. The governor was engaged. The legislature was learning more about early childhood. And this came right at the time where we recognized the importance of early childhood for economic development in Colorado because of the pandemic.

We lucked out that they were willing to listen at that point. The governor came around and said, I think we should have a department of early childhood. I already knew who could lead this amazing department. So I texted Lisa and said, get back to Colorado. We need you back here. Come and help us; come and do this work.

There were a lot of people involved, especially the advocacy organization, the Colorado Children's Campaign. We want to have a lot of owners of this work so that it can really be successful as we move forward. I was one of many. Often I was at the meetings with the governor so I could talk about the Denver Preschool Program to say, we have a local model. We know that this can work.

Elsa I. Holguín, President and CEO, Denver Preschool Program, is picture wearing a white blazer with geometric trim, smiling.
Elsa I. Holguín, President and CEO, Denver Preschool Program
Source: Denver Preschool Program

"We want to have a lot of owners of this work so that it can really be successful as we move forward. I was one of many. Often I was at the meetings with the governor so I could talk about the Denver Preschool Program to say, we have a local model. We know that this can work." —Elsa Holguín

How Colorado Iterated on Denver’s Experience: Similarities and Differences

Emmy: How has the state looked at Denver as an example, and what were some of the places where you consciously made different policy decisions than Denver did?

Lisa: Baked into Denver’s model from the beginning was an equity model to make sure that the families who were the lowest income, who were choosing the highest quality settings, received the most amount of funding. That is not what the state is doing. We do not have that built into our system even though we have quality standards as a requirement. Whether you're a home-based provider, center- based provider, or school-based provider, the only way the rate differs is by region based on the cost of living in a region.

[Colorado Universal Preschool offers 15 hours per week of free pre-K to all four-year-olds statewide. Eligible families may qualify for additional services. The program is offered in a range of settings, administered by regional partners known as Local Coordinating Organizations. For more information on Colorado’s statewide pre-K program, click here.]

"If you work at the statewide level, you know that the local communities know what works best for them, and we can't have a one-size-fits-all." —Dr. Lisa Roy

If you work at the statewide level, you know that the local communities know what works best for them, and we can't have a one-size-fits-all. We have rural, resort, and urban communities and every rural, resort, and urban community is different from the other. Denver is not the same as Colorado Springs or Pueblo or Boulder. We really have to rely—and want to rely— on our partnerships with our local coordinating organizations.

We’re still just trying to get the processes in place. Year two was a lot smoother and a lot of that was because of our local coordinating organizations (LCOs). For example, we heard from LCOs that we needed to make sure we have spaces for our low-income families because they typically come in at the beginning of the year. So we changed the enrollment process from having to use the algorithm to letting them walk in, sign up, and get a seat. We don't want to keep any family waiting to be assigned to a program or a school. We're in continuous improvement to figure things out, but we listen to our LCOs about what's working and what's not.

"We really have to rely- and want to rely- on our partnerships with our local coordinating organizations... We're in continuous improvement to figure things out, but we listen to our LCOs about what's working and what's not." —Dr. Lisa Roy

Read more about centralized enrollment systems and how states and municipalities can design them to be responsive to family needs in this New Practice Lab brief: Connecting More Families to Early Care and Education Programs Through Streamlined Enrollment.

What's unique about Colorado is that I'm a rule promulgator. I don't have a board. I do report directly to the governor. I listen to our constituents, especially families and our early childhood professionals and our partners like the LCOs. We have a rules advisory council that advises me, and then a subset of county administrators that advise me.

Because we do more than universal preschool as a department, we are consistently trying to make sure again that we're breaking down silos, bringing folks to the table, figuring out ways to work better together.

Creating the Conditions for Productive State and Local Collaboration

Emmy: Obviously not everyone is going to be so lucky to have a state counterpart with decades of personal relationship and history. Could you share a little bit about the formal and informal structures you use to navigate policy disagreements between your two entities? What are the lessons others here could take from that?

Elsa: I have Lisa's cell phone number, so I know where to find her, and she has my cell phone number and knows where to find me.

There was a period of time where some of the LCOs were pushing back [against the state]. This was not a surprise to Dr. Roy. She knew that this was going to be happening.

Some of our LCOs figured out that a good way to push on some of these issues was to go to the media and air dirty laundry in the media. Having bad media for the department was creating a bad taste in the mouths of the overall public. I needed to support the department and to tell Lisa, I got your back. It is not productive for me to be saying, I'm going to the media. It helps a lot that she and I could just talk. We don't have to agree on everything. We actually say to each other, we disagree, and that's okay

Lisa: I think it's important to understand, you're all localities doing this, you're doing great work, and wanting to take it to the next level, but the state cannot make a policy decision based on one community.

DPP was successful in helping everyone understand why it’s important to give more money to some kids than others. That is not our state. Our governor, who knows Colorado well, has said, we're going to try to give more hours to as many families as possible.

With the differences between state and local needs, Elsa and I get angry at times, but we know it's not with each other. We’re not taking it personally.

But elections happen, your governor may shift. So sometimes I say to Elsa, this is what our governor wants. Maybe the next governor will think differently about it, maybe the next executive director will think differently about it, so your energy probably needs to go there – not into changing this administration or what we're doing with the funding, but shaping the future.

Elsa: And my answer is, fine, I’ll bring it to the next director, because I'll still be here.

(Note: Governor Polis won a second term in 2022. He will not be eligible to run again in 2026.)

Respecting State and Local “Lanes”

ECE Working Group member: Can you share a little more of your thinking about how you approach navigating differences in policy between and among state and local entities? Who decides what’s negotiable and what’s not?

Lisa: We have some overall policies at the state level but localities really make those decisions here. For example, in the state of Colorado, we do not decide on one curriculum for the whole state; we have a resource bank and things will be vetted.

We had many of our home-based providers who are on farms. We had rules around whether or not they could have access to chickens or reptiles, including snakes, turtles, and hermit crabs. I knew that this was going to be problematic for our governor. I mentioned it in a cabinet meeting and I said, Governor, we're going to have rule-making. I get the sense from some of our providers, and that includes preschool providers, that they are not going to be happy if this rule passes as written. I will tell you, there were tears on both sides. The governor saved the hermit crab. We didn’t want to over-regulate.

"We have some overall policies at the state level but localities really make those decisions here... Many of our home-based providers... are on farms. We had rules around whether or not they could have access to chickens or reptiles, including snakes, turtles, and hermit crabs. I knew that this was going to be problematic for our governor. I mentioned it in a cabinet meeting and I said, Governor, we're going to have rule-making. I get the sense from some of our providers, and that includes preschool providers, that they are not going to be happy if this rule passes as written. I will tell you, there were tears on both sides. The governor saved the hermit crab. We didn’t want to over-regulate." —Dr. Lisa Roy

We have a parent advisory group that talks to us about everything with the department. Provider engagement in year one was dicey, just because we were trying to do things so quickly. The UPK director just had limited time, so we're trying to change that.

I go around the whole state and make sure that I'm visiting preschools, resource centers, councils, and LCOs. That's where I hear about what's working and what's not working.

[Across the country, government leaders have seen benefits from engaging families and child care providers when making early childhood policy. Read more about incorporating community voices in early childhood program design in this New Practice Lab brief: Participatory Planning to Build Stronger Early Childhood Policy and Program]

Finally, what I would say about policy, is if money isn't there, it doesn't matter if the policy's there. Our money is all spoken for and it's spoken for a year and a half ago. For some LCOs, this was new. They did an incredible job of helping us to understand exactly what staffing that they need to fulfill their statutory requirements.

Maximizing the Impact of a New Department, and Sustaining Progress

Elsa: From the local community perspective, the list of what we would like the department to change has kept growing and growing. We want to create a successful partnership, but I think we have to also have some reality checks. And then the next conversation that we need to have is, how do we hold each other accountable so that the department is really listening to the LCOs and how do we create some of these criteria so we can do it?

We need Lisa’s help to figure out how we create this relationship and institutionalize it so that the next administration doesn't come and say, bye, LCOs. We're going to work really hard on this. You're going to work hard. Let’s make sure that we figure out how we secure it, so that the next administration just says, this is the way it is.

"We need a department that works differently and better for families. If it's going to be the same thing that has happened over the years, and there is no input from the local communities, then let's not create a department. Let's just give the money to the Department of Human Services, and they can administer that, and we will create a lot less headache. So we have to hold ourselves accountable and hold the department accountable for, how are you different? How are you working better for families? Because that was the whole premise of why we created a Department of Early Childhood." —Elsa Holguín

It’s a commitment that we made when we were in the planning process. We need a department that works differently and better for families. If it's going to be the same thing that has happened over the years, and there is no input from the local communities, then let's not create a department. Let's just give the money to the Department of Human Services, and they can administer that, and we will create a lot less headache. So we have to hold ourselves accountable and hold the department accountable for, how are you different? How are you working better for families? Because that was the whole premise of why we created a Department of Early Childhood. And Lisa knows that and her staff knows that. And so it is this hand-in-hand dance that we have to do together, for the benefit of the children and the families that we know deserve better services.

Building Local Autonomy into State Led Initiatives

ECE working group member: Our state has been reluctant to make a rules change that would allow local governments to become intermediary organizations for the state funded preschool program. While that decision stalls, we are losing state funded seats in our community because providers would prefer to partner with the local preschool program. What advice might you have for us?

Lisa: We have a movement in Colorado to create more local funding initiatives. We now have nine and several that are in the planning process. The UPK program is funding 15 hours per week, but what 90 percent of families need is a full and extended day. So we need local money, we need state money and we need federal funding. There is no way that any of those entities can pay for that cost alone.

Use Colorado as the example to say, we're going to support along this continuum, particularly in this environment. I think in the next four years the success will be local funding initiatives and really maximizing what we can do at the local level until we have an opportunity to look at the federal government. Data is important to be able to talk about how many children you can serve, which children need the comprehensive services the most, and the need to work together with the state around their resources.

Dr. Lisa Roy, Executive Director, Colorado Department of Early Childhood, is pictured in business attire, smiling.
Dr. Lisa Roy, Executive Director, Colorado Department of Early Childhood
Source: Colorado Department of Early Childhood
"So we need local money, we need state money and we need federal funding. There is no way that any of those entities can pay for that cost alone... I think in the next four years the success will be local funding initiatives and really maximizing what we can do at the local level until we have an opportunity to look at the federal government." —Dr. Lisa Roy

We have 64 counties.There are some counties where sales tax or property tax or any kind of tax just isn't going to happen. We have communities that have no child care programs because they can't even hire staff. We had one child care center in an entire county and the person who was running it moved out of state. We as a state are looking at waivers and other things that we can do because we want to set high-quality standards, but we also have a really important role in helping our children get into the state system.

What I would say is, help the state understand your needs, but also say, hey, I'm not going to take away from another county that really, really needs help. We need both. How do we make this happen?

Acknowledgments

The New Practice Lab is grateful to Dr. Lisa Roy and Elsa Holguín, and their respective teams at the Colorado Department of Early Childhood and the Denver Preschool Program, for engaging in this meaningful discussion and granting permission to share their insights more broadly through this blog post.

About the ECE Implementation Working Group

The ECE Implementation Working Group is a group of early childhood education leaders from cities and counties across the country. These leaders gather to share best practices from their experience working with families and local communities, and their work aligns with the New Practice Lab’s theory of change: that implementation lessons should inform policy design from the start. More information about the Working Group can be found here. You can reach out to us with questions about the group and its work at npl_work@newamerica.org.